Saving the rhino is not just a white thing

Did you know that 80% of black South Africans said they would be “very sad” if wild rhinos were to become extinct in the wild?

If you did not‚ you are probably not alone.

Traditionally the rhino poaching crisis has been viewed as a wealthy‚ white South African concern‚ but a new anti-rhino poaching campaign is out to debunk that myth.

The campaign‚ recently launched by conservation organisation WildAid‚ has called on black celebs to back the fight against poachers in a series of television and billboard adverts.

Rooted in market research conducted in May and June 2015‚ the campaign educates SA on who really cares about saving our wildlife.

According to WildAid‚ its market research shows that in South Africa: - 80% of black people said they would be “very sad” if wild rhinos were to become extinct‚ compared to 84% for coloured people‚ 83% for Indian people and 81% for white people. - 5% of black people said that they were not interested in visiting national parks to look at animals‚ versus 9% of white people. - 33% of black people said they would like to visit a national park but never had the chance‚ against 18% of white people. - 6% of black people said that rhino poaching was a problem for the rich.

Local celebs like actor Maps Maponyane‚ rugby stars Tendai "Beast" Mtawarira‚ Siya Kolisi‚ Joe Pietersen and Scarra Ntubeni‚ comedian Marc Lottering‚ media personality Stacey Holland‚ radio presenters Poppy Ntshongwana and DJ Fresh and actress Masasa Mbangeni have all became ambassadors for the campaign.

Maponyane said he joined the campaign to preserve something that is distinctly South African.

"[It] would be very sad to have enjoyed all of that [wildlife] but been very selfish as humans to have milked it all‚ and destroyed it all‚ so that in the future our kids wouldn't have been able to enjoy any of it‚" he said.

WildAid's Adam Welz says the organisation hopes more will join.

“Most high-profile advocates for rhinos have been white‚ and this has resulted in many influential conservationists in NGOs and government believing that black people - especially urban black people - don’t really care about our wildlife.

“Our campaign is a first step on the road to making the cross-cutting support for conservation visible and building a platform for all South Africans to engage in the conservation conversation.

“We are not asking for money from the public - you don’t have to pay to add your voice to the campaign.”

Welz said WildAid wants SA's leaders to know that the nation would like them to do more in the fight against rhino poaching.

“We need to arrest and jail more high-level wildlife crime kingpins‚ not just chase low-level poachers around our wildlife reserves ... we need to send a far stronger message to people outside our borders‚ especially in Asia‚ not to buy rhino horn.”